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Completed	12 May 2005
Title	Under the Tuscan Sun
Author	Frances Mayes
Published	1996
Quote	"I'm packing for my flight home from Rome when a stranger calls me from the United States. 'What's the downside?' a voice asks on the telephone...'I'm sorry to bother you but I don't have anyone to discuss this with. I want to do something but I don't know exactly what. I'm a lawyer in Baltimore. My mother died and..."
Review	What a stupid book. What's so hard about re-locating to another country? People do it all the time. In the book, though, the author drags it out and tells us of all the ups and downs, as if it's the first time she's ever stepped foot outside the United States. I had the misfortune of seeing the movie. In the movie, Diane Lane (a favorite of mine since her 1979 movie, A Little Romance) is a divorced woman who buys a house in Tuscany on a whim. She does it alone. In the book, though, the woman has a male partner, and they buy the house together, fix it up together, navigate Italian culture together. What's so difficult about buying a house in Italy-----especially if you've got a helping hand? I just don't see what the big deal is. Just as in the above quote, this book talks about so-called risk. Oh, it's so risky to buy a house overseas etc etc etc. This idea of risk is really unfounded, because if you play your cards right, and do your homework, and cover your ass, then you're not going to be at risk at all. To me, something that is truly "risky" involves, say, death. As in, a tight-rope walker who's walking on a wire strung from one skyscraper to another. Now that's what I call risky. If he makes a mistake, he dies. Buying a house and fixing it up in Italy is not called risky. It's called fun.

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